Weekend in Cowtown!

So Matt's cousin is married to a country music songwriter. How cool is that?! He is the main songwriter and executive producer for Brad Paisley. But he has also written songs for  Darius Rucker, Josh Turner, Lee Ann Womack & Blake Shelton(maybe more?). He's had over 20 songs hit top 20 and several #1 hits. He has even won song writer of the year!

Both Chris & Shanna are EXTREMELY gracious, kind, giving people who I enjoyed getting to know better over the weekend. We are wanting to plan a trip some time to go visit their neck of the woods in Nashville. I'm ready to go now! ;)

So, anyway, they were coming to Ft. Worth and invited the cousins to tag along! We made our way to Ft. Worth & got to see Jerrod Nieman & Wade Bowen. We were able to get on Jerrod's bus and check out all the pre-show stuff and see how he "lives" while on the road. It was a super cool experience and we are so thankful to Chris & Shanna for inviting us! Here are some pics from the trip!

Headed to Ft. Worth....my honey surprised me with new boots! 

I LOVE them and they are exactly what I would've picked out!

Friday night backstage with Jerrod Niemann

 Jerrod put on an AWESOME show.

If you ever get a chance to see him, GO! It was very entertaining!

 Backstage at Billy Bob's

Us with Matt's sweet cousin!

On Saturday, Matt & I slept in late(AWESOME!) 

and then strolled the stockyards. We had Cooper's BBQ for lunch. Yum!

 Saturday night, the rest of the fam arrived! 

And we ate Cooper's again for dinner! ha! We couldn't get enough!! 

Sisters in law!

The sisters in law! Clockwise from bottom...me, Heather, Erin, Melody!

The WHOLE gang! 

BJ & Melody, Doug & Heather, Erin, Matt & I, Shanna & Chris

The girls! We had a blast backstage waiting for Wade Bowen.

Wade Bowen performing.

The brothers! Matt, Doug & BJ

The siblings, minus 1...he's still to young to get in! ;)

Matt, Doug, BJ, Erin

 

Matt & I with Wade Bowen. 

His show was not as "rockin" as Jerrod's, but still great! 

I enjoyed visiting with him...he has 2 little boys and we got to talk golf. It was fun!

I LOVE this man! We had SUCH a great time. 

We missed our Owen boy but had a ton of fun with it just being us. 

We need to do this more often!

Many thanks to Aunt Bekah & Uncle Michael and Nonna & Poppa 

for taking such great care of our little boy so we could get away! 

Start of Fall!

The weather is getting cooler...I had to wear long sleeves Sunday..the smell in the air is a little different...we are entering our favorite time of year...FALL! With Fall comes so many fun activities! Here's an iPhone photo dump to play catch up on my ole bloggy blog. :)

The weather was great for a BIG garage sale at Mom & Dad's new casa. While we were tagging & setting up the night before, the boys found antlers, a flashlight & a toy gun. Therefore, "Deer hunter" game was played all evening. :)

Our Girls Night Out(In) for September was at my house & we had a 

"Saw It, Pinned It, Did It!" Party! (aka- craft night!) 

We all made fall wreaths for our doors. 

FUN FUN FUN and lots of cute crafts( and LAUGHS!) 

came out of that evening!

My Fall Wreath

Pumpkins on candle holders...great idea, Pinterest! :)

Bekah brought us all a cute pair of socks for Girls Night IN! :)

Close up of my wreath. Turned out SO cute! I love it!

My cousin Carrie had her SWEET baby girl, Adilyn Grace, so we headed to Houston to meet her! Road trippin' with my boys! What we do best! 

Just a pic of the back of my camera of Miss Adilyn. PRECIOUS PRECIOUS angel! More pics (and better quality!) can be found at www.facebook.com/mandlphotography

Back in Tyler it is FAIR TIME! We had a blast  together just the 3 of us. Sometimes it is so nice to do things together without a big group. We had corn dogs for dinner and spent under $100! ha! Pretty successful for a night at the fair! Owen loved the little pig races. He is still saying "soooo-weee pig!" 

My sweet lil family!

Shooting game...seriously he would have sat here all night...

Riding the dragon ride! Look at his face! I'm obsessed. LOVE watching my boy have fun! Even "dinky" old fair rides are fun when watching through their eyes. :)

                                  

His Halloween costume came in the mail! :) He loves knights ever since we took him to Medieval Times. There is also a show on Nick Jr. he likes called "Mike the Knight." So this costume is perfect for him this year. 

Mom & Dad got "grandkid corner" set up on the side of their new house. A sitting swing & a horse. 

All they need now is a pool! ;)

Seriously...obsessed with shooting. 

Ready for a pumpkin farm & carving them & leaves & fires & s'mores and wearing layers...bring on more Fall weather!